04/17/2012

All Good Work is Done in Defiance of Management

It’s hard to argue with Bob Woodward when he sums up his career with the maxim, “All good work is done in defiance of management.”

Or as explained later, “And there is a truth in that. That when somebody says you can’t have time for that, you just have to say no, I need time, I must have time, you have to show progress, but you can do it.”

The quote is well known to reporters, who have used it as a rallying cry for several years in their dealing with their editors. Photographers know the same impulse since the struggle of time and deadlines is universal.

Yet to think of management as a group of individuals is to miss the wisdom in the phrase. Management is really just a process. You could just as well say, “All good work is done in defiance of your own time management.”

The truth is that even if your employer gave you carte blanche in terms of work time, your personal time is tied to the schedule of your subjects for the duration of your project. If their life story is unpredictable and messy, then your life might need to reflect that as well. I’m sure other photojournalists have found that at first you manage your project, then your project manages you. Not everyone is able or willing to tolerate that infringement on his or her personal time.

Imagine yourself in your pajamas on the weekend after a long week of work. You have a big brew of coffee, your kids are reading comics and you’re looking forward to a long-planned family outing that afternoon.

Then a subject from a current project calls up, screaming, “We’re getting kicked out! We’re getting kicked out! You have to get here!” Most any photojournalist wouldn’t go back to coffee and the funnies. They would make apologies and promise it won’t take long.

But it’s not just about missing leisure time. Presumably, photojournalists have a personal life with emergencies, urgencies and other things that can’t be interrupted.

This all came to mind after watching a presentation by Mona Reeder at this past weekend’s Midwest Photo Summit. Reeder showed story after story of gut-wrenching images of social issues in Texas and intense images from overseas reporting in war zones. They all showed an impressive level of access and intimacy that you could tell required the commitment of time.

All that work came at a price. She recounts having to stop everything when a subject would call about a climactic moment about to happen. Since she was gone for stretches at time, her personal life suffered. Her health suffered. Even her dog didn’t recognize her.

When she turned her gaze as a judge to the stories produced by the best photojournalists in Illinois, she was surprised by the picture story categories. The stories didn’t involve in-depth looks at social issues or demonstrate a sustained look at a subject’s emotional life. In short, there wasn’t the kind of intimate storytelling that reveals a commitment of time. Most everyone saw this as well.

In part, this is a consequence of business trends. There are fewer photojournalists working for news organizations than ever before, and less sources of support the kind of socially important work that inspired many of us to get into the business

But it makes this issue of time and management that much more crucial.

The takeaway is that if you’re looking to get ahead in photojournalism, consider opening yourself up to the sacrifice of time required for in-depth stories. Because I think the trend is away from those kinds of projects, your work will stand out. Even if you are able to win time from your employer (if you have one), you will still need to make last-minute and weekend decisions about the use of your personal time.

Because of this, it’s a good idea to clear your personal decks. As long as you plan to work on a project, make sure you won’t be gone for long stretches of time or have other stories with similar demands on your time. If given the option, it would also be advisable to choose your subjects with some attention to geographic proximity. The closer you are, the more frequent your interactions will be, and the quicker you can get back and forth - from your subject to home.

All this preparation will more likely lead to good work that doesn’t defy management.

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